Light emitting diodes (“LEDs”) have many advantages over conventional light sources, such as incandescent, halogen and fluorescent lamps. These advantages include longer operating life, lower power consumption and smaller size. Consequently, conventional light sources are increasingly being replaced with LEDs in traditional lighting applications. As an example, LEDs are currently being used in flashlights, traffic signal lights, automotive taillights and display devices.
As LEDs are used in more lighting applications, there is an increasing need to produce brighter and smaller LEDs. The brightness of an LED is partly dependent on the applied power, i.e., the applied driving current. However, an increase in the driving current correspondingly results in an increased heat generated by the die of the LED, which must be dissipated. If the generated heat is not effectively dissipated, the performance of the LED is significantly degraded, i.e., the brightness of the LED is significantly reduced. Thus, an important function of an LED package is heat dissipation to maintain an optimal operating temperature for the LED die.
Among the various packages for LEDs, an LED package of interest is the plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) package for a surface mount LED. Surface mount LEDs in PLCC packages may be used, for example, in automotive interior display devices, electronic signs and signals, electrical equipments and numerous other devices.
A concern with current PLCC package designs is that, in order to increase heat dissipation for higher power LEDs, the package size must be increased to handle the increased heat, or an additional piece of metal is needed to form a heat sink, which would result in an increase in the manufacturing cost of the packages.
In view of this concern, there is a need for a compact PLCC package for high power surface mount LED with enhanced heat dissipation and method for making the PLCC package.